... your place for oat information.

For those of you who do genotyping, I have an urgent request from Jason Fiedler, who runs the USDA-ARS genotyping lab in Fargo, ND.

Illumina, which has been producing the 6K chip many of you are using, has run out of the current 6K beadpool. A decision must now be made about how to move forward, so Jason has set up a survey regarding the various options. A more detailed explanation of those options and a link to the survey can be found here.

First, I’d like to thank everybody who’s been attending the “Speaking of Oats…” (SOO) webinars, as well as all the speakers we've had so far. If you haven’t been able to join us live, recordings of the seminars are available on the SOO page or (in a tidier format) in the Research Report sections for 2020 and 2021. The recording of January’s T3/Oat webinar is now available, along with a transcript of the Q. and A. session.

This is a reminder that the next “Speaking of Oats…” webinar, "GrainGenes: A Curated and Functional Global Web Resource for Small Grains" will be held Thursday, February 18th, at 11:00 am EST. It will be presented by Taner Sen (USDA-ARS, USA) and Victoria Blake (Montana State University, USA).

A number of new events have also been added to the calendar, including these two:

Deer really do like oats – and they’re picky. Turns out other animals do, too, as George Fedak can attest. The same could be said for little boys, and Janet Hainstock has written a lovely story about one little boy’s love of oats.

The next “Speaking of Oats…” (SOO) webinar will be held on Thursday, February 18th, at 11:00 am Eastern time (Canada/USA). Taner Sen (USDA-ARS, USA) and Victoria Blake (Montana State University, USA) will talk to us about “GrainGenes: A Curated and Functional Global Web Resource for Small Grains".

The next “Speaking of Oats…” webinar, “The T3 Database and Applications to Oats”, will be held Thursday, January 21st at 11:00 am EST. This will be presented by Jean-Luc Jannink, Clay Birkett, and David Waring (USDA-ARS and/or Cornell U., USA).

The video recording from December's "Speaking of Oats..." (SOO) webinar is now available on YouTube.

Many thanks to Stephen Harrison, Mónica Mathias, and Liliana Wehrhahne for describing how and why oats are grown in Chile and Argentina, and how the International Oat Nursery works to help oat breeders there and around the world. Thank you also to Eric DeBlieck and Jim Bradeen for being our hosts.

In last week’s “Speaking of Oats…” (SOO) webinar, Steve Harrison pointed out that white tailed deer quite like grazing on oats, and are, in fact, very picky about the variety they choose! The video from this talk, which features Steve, Monica Mathias, and Liliane Wehrhahne speaking about the International Oat Nursery, will be uploaded soon.

The video from November’s “Speaking of Oats…” (SOO) webinar is now available on YouTube.

Many thanks to Gordon Harrison and Dale Nellor for their insights into the work done by the Canadian National Milling Association (CNMA) and the North American Millers’ Association (NAMA). Thank you also to Tom Rabaey, Pat Ouimet, and Jim Bradeen, who represented Oat Global, and to Grant Czadzeck, from the UMN communications team.

Some people love to collaborate and share ideas, and one of those people was Vern Burrows, former oat breeder at AAFC. I am sorry to tell you that Vern passed away on November 8th, in his 91st year. An article celebrating his life can be found in the "Hall of Fame" section under "Obituaries". You can also read the obituary published in the Ottawa Citizen.